Laurie Woolever
- Mar 8
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 21
Laurie Woolever is a New York Times best-selling author, food journalist, and former chef whose work has shaped the way readers understand food and travel. Best known for her collaborations with Anthony Bourdain, including the #1 New York Times bestseller World Travel: An Irreverent Guide and Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, Woolever has also built a respected solo career in culinary journalism. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, GQ, Bon Appétit, and other leading publications, where she covers restaurant culture, global cuisine, and the intersection of food and storytelling.
Laurie Woolever: New York Times Best-Selling Author, Chef, and Public Speaker
Laurie Woolever is a name synonymous with food, travel, and deeply insightful storytelling. Best known as the longtime collaborator and confidante of the late Anthony Bourdain, Woolever has carved out her own niche in food journalism, cookbook writing, and culinary commentary. With a career spanning decades, she has worked as an editor, researcher, and writer, bringing to life some of the most compelling narratives about food and culture.
For nearly a decade, Woolever worked alongside Bourdain as his right-hand woman, assistant, editor, and co-author, helping to shape some of his most celebrated works while keeping pace with his relentless travel, storytelling, and insatiable curiosity. But her career was already well underway long before their paths crossed. Her writing has landed in The New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Food & Wine, Lucky Peach, Saveur, Bloomberg, Dissent, Roads & Kingdoms, and more.
After earning her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1996, she moved to New York and cycled through a string of jobs before enrolling in the French Culinary Institute. There, chef-instructor Pascal Béric handed her a piece of advice she’d carry for life: “Don’t freak out! Freaking out is not gonna help.” That sentiment would prove useful as she navigated a career that took her from the kitchens of restaurants to the editorial rooms of some of the most respected food publications.
Woolever’s experience in the food world is as layered as the best bowl of Bún bò Huế. She has been a private cook, nanny, caterer, recipe tester, farmhand, food editor, and, at one point, a video store clerk. From 1999 to 2002, she worked as Mario Batali’s assistant, contributing to Holiday Food (2000) and The Babbo Cookbook (2002). Later, she edited and recipe-tested Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook (2004) before moving into editorial roles at Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator.
In 2016, she co-authored Appetites: A Cookbook with Bourdain, followed by World Travel: An Irreverent Guide in 2021, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. That same year, she published Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, which landed at #7. Each of these books has been translated into more than a dozen languages, proving that Bourdain’s voice remains as vital as ever—and that Woolever was instrumental in preserving his legacy.
Beyond her collaborations, Woolever has built her own voice in food writing. She co-authored Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking, published by Clarkson Potter in November 2024, and her memoir, Care and Feeding, arrives on March 11, 2025, via Ecco. She also co-hosts Carbface for Radio, a food-focused podcast with Chris Thornton, and writes for Flaming Hydra, a creator-owned newsletter collective.
Through it all, she remains a sharp observer of food culture, an unflinching storyteller, and, most importantly, someone who never freaks out—at least not when it matters.
From Professional Kitchens to the Literary World
Woolever’s early years were rooted in hands-on kitchen work, where she tested recipes, cooked for private clients, and learned the daily grind of professional food service. The discipline and technical training she gained at the French Culinary Institute prepared her to translate the chaos of the line into precise, trustworthy writing about food. That foundation set her apart when she moved into editorial roles, where her credibility as a trained cook distinguished her from writers who had never worked in restaurants.
Her editorial career gained traction with contributions to respected publications such as Art Culinaire and Wine Spectator, where she combined firsthand culinary knowledge with a sharp editorial eye. This dual perspective positioned her to handle demanding collaborations with high-profile chefs and, ultimately, with Anthony Bourdain. By the time she stepped into the role of Bourdain’s assistant, Woolever had already proven herself capable of both mastering the details of recipe development and navigating the editorial standards of national food media. Those experiences laid the groundwork for her later collaborations, where her ability to merge precision with narrative helped shape works that would resonate far beyond the kitchen.
Collaborations with Anthony Bourdain
Few partnerships in food writing were as enduring or as impactful as Woolever’s collaboration with Anthony Bourdain. Their work together spanned cookbooks, travel writing, and oral history, each project reflecting the trust Bourdain placed in her ability to shape his voice on the page.
The most visible product of their collaboration was World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, a book they began before Bourdain’s passing in 2018. Woolever brought the project to completion, weaving Bourdain’s notes, recorded conversations, and fragments of ideas into a cohesive narrative that doubled as both a practical travel guide and a portrait of his worldview. Released in 2021, the book debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and has since been translated into multiple languages, underscoring its global reach. Critics praised Woolever’s steady editorial hand, with The Washington Post noting that the book “carries Bourdain’s wit and irreverence, but also the clarity of someone who knew how to finish his sentences,” while Publishers Weekly called it “a fitting tribute shaped with care and authenticity.”
She followed with Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, published later that same year. Drawing on interviews with nearly 100 friends, family members, colleagues, and collaborators, Woolever curated a layered, candid portrait of Bourdain’s life and legacy. The oral history format allowed for unfiltered voices—chefs, producers, and loved ones alike—to share perspectives that revealed both his brilliance and his contradictions. The book became a critical resource for understanding Bourdain’s cultural impact. The New Yorker described it as “raw and unvarnished, a portrait as complex as the man himself,” while Kirkus Reviews praised it as “a strikingly honest remembrance that captures both the myth and the man.”
Laurie Woolever’s Unique Voice in Food Journalism
Although her collaborations with Anthony Bourdain brought her global recognition, Woolever has consistently proven that her voice stands firmly on its own. Her writing—published in outlets such as The New York Times, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, GQ, Lucky Peach, and Bloomberg—is marked by precision, candor, and a willingness to interrogate the cultural forces that shape what and how we eat.
Across her journalism, Woolever has shown an impressive range. She has profiled celebrated chefs, capturing both their craft and their contradictions; written deeply reported pieces on restaurant labor, exposing the challenges faced by cooks, servers, and dishwashers; and produced travel-driven essays that explore food as a means to understand place and culture. In Vogue, she dissected the shifting role of women in professional kitchens, while in Roads & Kingdoms, she examined how street food reveals the social fabric of global cities. Her essays for Dissent have extended beyond the plate, weaving in questions of politics, class, and cultural identity.
Her forthcoming memoir, Care and Feeding (Ecco, March 2025), turns that same sensibility inward. The book blends personal reflection with an unflinching examination of restaurant culture, tackling issues such as burnout, gender dynamics, power hierarchies, and the unseen labor that sustains the industry. Early industry buzz has described the memoir as “a brutally honest yet deeply empathetic account of life in and around the kitchen,” positioning it as essential reading for both hospitality professionals and general readers curious about the realities beyond the plate.
A Lasting Impact on the Culinary World
Woolever’s body of work preserves how dishes, cities, and working kitchens actually function—on the line, on the road, and on the page. Through cookbooks, a #1 New York Times travel guide, a wide-ranging oral history, long-form features, and a podcast, she’s documented the systems and people that make food culture move: the unseen labor of restaurants, the politics of taste, and the way place shapes what ends up on a plate. Her reporting-first approach and trained-cook precision have made her a reliable source for readers who want accuracy and narrative in equal measure.
Her influence shows up in three places: readers use her work to find and understand food in context; industry professionals cite it for the way it captures craft, hierarchy, and culture without romanticizing them; and aspiring writers point to her editing and structure as a model for turning field notes into finished, durable storytelling.
As The Washington Post wrote of World Travel: An Irreverent Guide (April 2021), “Woolever’s careful hand ensures the book feels complete, carrying Bourdain’s voice while giving it shape and order.” Likewise, Kirkus Reviews praised Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography (September 2021) as “an impeccably edited collection, proof of Woolever’s skill in curating chaos into clarity."
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